Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MPP Schedule Variance Formula
MPP Schedule Variance Formula
The tips and tricks below are taken from Project Mentor, the smart way to learn Microsoft Project. For further information, please go to: www.projectlearning.net/project_mentor.htm More useful tips and tricks can be found on the Project Learning blog: www.projectknowledge.net Related Document(s) Filtering & grouping by schedule status www.projectlearning.net/pdf/I1.2.pdf
Background
Before replanning a project, a comparison should be made between the project's current schedule and baseline information. A simple comparison can determine: If any slippage has occurred; the tasks that exhibit the slippage or the amount of slippage that exists. The project's schedule is normally compared to the overall baseline for the plan (which is usually agreed between the Project Manager and the Project Sponsor). The schedule can also be compared with interim baselines to determine any changes since a previous project update. These comparisons can be invaluable, as they can highlight trends occurring within the project that may be missed by simply looking at a project's critical path.
The view above is indicating: o o Design structure started and finished on time. The baseline bar and the actual bar for this task are scheduled identically. Write body text started on time and is split. It is scheduled to finish very late due to a resource calendar affecting when work upon the task can resume. Set page layouts is delayed because of its late-running predecessor. Create exercises started early and it finished early. Test exercises started and finished early, well before its deadline date. Create contents & index has a delayed predecessor, so it too is delayed. The milestone Manual completed has not been rescheduled because of its delayed predecessor.
o o o o o
Hints
If tasks were delayed beyond deadline dates, an indicator could show a warning message. If milestones (or indeed any tasks) appear earlier than the finish of their predecessor(s), they probably have an inflexible constraint against them. If so, a scheduling conflict probably exists.
o o o o
If a task has a positive start variance: Its scheduled start is later than its baseline start. If a task's start variance is a negative value: It started earlier than its baseline. If a task has a positive finish variance: Its scheduled finish is later than its baseline finish. If a task's finish variance is a negative value: It finished earlier than its baseline.
Hints
Start variances and finish variances for summary tasks reflect their baseline performance. In the example above the Content summary task above started on time, but is expected to finish six days late. The Exercises summary task started three days early, but is expected to finish three days late. When tasks have a finish variance greater than their start variance, they are overrunning; they are expected to take longer to complete than originally planned. These tasks may well have cost variances associated with them as well.
o o
If tasks are completed or are critical: Their total slack value will be 0. If any tasks can be delayed without affecting the project finish date or a task with an inflexible constraint: Their total slack value will be positive. If a scheduling conflict exists: Tasks will have a negative total slack value.
Hints
Where negative slack values are displayed against tasks, the sequence of tasks needs to be performed quicker in order to meet the project finish date or an inflexible constraint. In the example above, a saving of one day on EITHER Set page layouts OR Create contents & index would be enough to bring the project back on schedule and reduce the total slack to be 0 days.
Create new views that contain custom bar styles to display the latest interim baseline status compared to the current schedule:
Where there is a variance between the 'Interim 3' bars and the normal task bars, a slippage will have taken place as a result of the 'Interim3' update to the project (for example, Write body text, Set page layouts and Create contents & index have all slipped).
Hints
Before updating a project with ANY actual progress, consider the update frequency. This will determine when each change of status date should take place. Ensure that the project team is aware of every status date and hence when the updates will be performed. Create calculated fields to compare interim baseline values with current schedule values; for example to determine a variance between a scheduled finish date and the 'Finish 4' field. This would allow comparison with the project at its fourth change of status date. Up to 4 rows of bar styles can be displayed. This can provide a very detailed schedule comparison (if required):
o o
The progress line for Write body text has been drawn back behind the status date. This indicates that the task is behind schedule. The progress against the two summary tasks is rolled up from their subtasks. The summary tasks are described as being ahead of schedule.